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Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof, heading to Scotland on Tuesday, said it would be ”grotesquely irresponsible” for politicians to back down from promises of aid for Africa. But Britain’s Treasury chief Gordon Brown warned that anti-poverty campaigners may be disappointed when G8 leaders announce their package of aid to Africa.
A boat carrying 60 passengers has sunk off Campo on Cameroon’s coast, leaving 30 people dead or missing, Cameroon’s national radio reported on Tuesday. The ramshackle vessel went down on June 30 in the West African Gulf of Guinea waters as it was on its way from Nigeria to Gabon, the radio report said.
The National Prosecuting Authority will focus increasingly on crimes occasioned by greed rather than those arising out of poverty, National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli said on Tuesday. However, this does not mean that poor people committing crimes will not be prosecuted.
Oil prices climbed on Tuesday on persistent fears that the heating oil supply would run short this winter when demand is expected to peak. Ongoing concerns about United States stock levels keep overall sentiment in the market bullish, said Julian Lee, an energy analyst with the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies.
South African Tourism said on Tuesday that it recognises all 10 indigenous languages and that the Democratic Alliance’s complaint of an airport billboard insulting Afrikaners is based on misunderstanding. According to the DA, the advert is insensitive and a ”smack in the face of everyone who spoke Afrikaans”.
The new Prime Minister of Mauritius, former opposition leader Navin Ramgoolam, on Tuesday urged islanders not to fear change after his victory in weekend polls, saying bolstering the country’s ailing sugar and textile industries will be his top priorities. ”The population has voted for change,” Ramgoolam said in a nationally televised address.
There were gasps in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday when it was revealed that the former boyfriend of Cape murder accused Dina Rodrigues will testify that she had paid R10 000 for a contract murder on a baby. ”You told him, ‘I paid R10 000 to sort out the problem,”’ the state prosecutor said.
Empowerment firm Imvume Management is suing the Freedom Front Plus for defamation, the party said on Tuesday. Two months ago, Imvume obtained a court order gagging the Mail & Guardian after the newspaper revealed that Imvume donated R11-million to the African National Congress before last year’s general elections.
A German teenager confessed on the first day of his trial on Tuesday to creating the internet Sasser worm that waylaid millions of computers around the globe last year, a court official said. The Sasser worm had struck on May 1 and in less than a week hit thousands of companies and as many as 18-million computers worldwide.